When the original Chanakya of Indian politics was caught in a chakravyuh in 1984 Lok Sabha elections
There is hope for statesmanship, yet
This story is from a time when politics threw up statesmen and not pygmies merely masquerading as politicians.
It was 1984 — Indira Gandhi had been assassinated, and her son, Rajiv Gandhi, had advanced the Lok Sabha elections. The Opposition thought they had a good chance at returning to power. A popular prime minister had been assassinated, but they thought the sympathy will die down in a few days and the electorate will vote for a new government and not one based on dynasty, or headed by someone who was uninterested in politics till a few years ago.
Born in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh in 1924, Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had served as the external affairs minister in the Morarji Cabinet was being seen as a putative prime minister.
He needed a safe seat to contest the Lok Sabha elections for two reasons: One, he had to be in Parliament to make his claim for the top job and two, he was a star campaigner for the newly formed BJP and his services would be needed to shore up the chances of other weaker BJP candidates.
Atalji decided to contest from Gwalior — the city of his birth and a seat he had previously won in 1971. There was another reason; late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia’s writ ran large in Gwalior. After all, she had set up the Jan Sangh and the BJP and made the area under the former Gwalior state a bastion for both parties. Atalji also had an old association with the Gwalior state. His father had been a teacher in the service of the state and Atalji had studied on a stipend that was provided by the Gwalior state, the mandatory service requirement being waived by then ruler Jiwaji Rao Scindia. He was convinced that with Vijayaraje Scindia’s support, he was through.
Unbeknownst to Vajpayee was a grand political plan by the Congress to checkmate all top opposition leaders, with a view to tie them down in their constituencies.
The man raring to pick up the gauntlet and to take on one of the most popular opposition leaders in the country, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was late Madhavrao Scindia. But he was aware that given the high stakes for Vajpayee in the elections, if he had made his plans of taking on Vajpayee known, Vajpayee would possibly shift to another constituency. The plan was therefore kept top secret. That his relationship with his mother was extremely strained was known to all. Through this contest, Madhavrao could prove which Scindia Gwalior would go with. If he won, he would also have delivered Gwalior for the Congress after a gap of twenty two years.
In the run up to the polls, Madhavrao Scindia had filed his nomination from Guna, an adjoining constituency now represented by his son Jyotiraditya and had been campaigning there. The Congress had fielded Vidya Razdan from Gwalior and it was essentially being seen as a no-contest with Atal Bihari Vajpayee pitted against her.
On the last date for filing nominations, Madhavrao Scindia dramatically appeared in the office of the returning officer in Gwalior along with his friend Balendu Shukla and supporters and filed his papers. This was an hour and half before the time to file nominations lapsed.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee had no time to react.
Meanwhile, Mahendra Singh Kalukheda, a Scindia loyalist who passed away recently was also dispatched to Guna to file his nominations as a Congress candidate.
The chakravyuh had consumed Atalji who later came to be known as the Chanakya of Indian politics.
The entire episode has been vividly recounted in Madhavrao Scindia’s biography by Vir Sanghvi as well.
The campaigning picked up in Gwalior with Atalji then relying heavily on Vijayaraje Scindia’s support.
In a first, she came out campaigning against her own son, Madhavrao but the die had been cast. Atalji was defeated by a whopping 1.75 lakh votes. This was not his first electoral defeat in his career, but it was a defeat he faced sitting closest to victory.
After this defeat, Atalji did not ever return to the city of his birth for political validation. He did however contest from Vidisha in 1991, also a safe seat for the BJP, lying within the erstwhile Scindia state.
He had also contested from Lucknow that year and vacated Vidisha while retaining Lucknow, his adopted home till the end of his political career.
Atalji vacated Vidisha in favour of a 32-year-old first-time BJP MLA who went on to win Vidisha again for the BJP. The man is now the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, for the last 14 years, and owes something to Atalji for getting him this break in politics.
Even though he had been collateral damage in family and party politics, Atalji never held his defeat in Gwalior against anyone, not against the Congress, and not against Madhavrao Scindia. He seemed to be sure that no defeat could deny him what was his destiny — to become Prime Minister one day.
On Thursday, when Jyotiraditya Scindia learnt about Atalji’s demise, he was campaigning in Raisen for the upcoming Assembly elections. He observed two-minute silence and cancelled the rest of the political tour, rushing to Delhi the same evening.
On Friday, Jyotiraditya Scindia did a shaashtaang pranam to the mortal remains of his father’s most famous political adversary, and unarguably the tallest political leader Gwalior has every thrown up. There is hope for statesmanship, yet.